Supermarket chain Asda has apologised and withdrawn a Halloween outfit it was selling online as a “mental patient fancy dress costume”, after criticism.

The £20 item included clothing, fake blood, a mask and a fake meat cleaver.

Following criticism, including from one “stunned” mental health charity, the store offered “sincere apologies for the offence it has caused”.

It would be making a “very sizeable donation” to mental health charity Mind, Asda added.

In a statement on Wednesday evening, Asda, which is owned by US retail giant Walmart, said the sale had been a “completely unacceptable error”.

No kidding! If one in four UK adults will experience mental ill-health at some point in their lives, wouldn’t a little empathy be in order? That’s a quarter of your staff. And a quarter of your customers.

My postgraduate studies in Marketing never included a section on alienating and stigmatising your customers. Can’t think…